Yum Repository

Given that a great deal of the content on this site has become how-to's on updating Red Hat Enterprise Linux & CentOS servers, I've decided to make things a bit easier on everyone and supply a repository that can be used to install the newer versions of software that I build with a single command.

As of 8/28/2007 binaries are provided for both 32-bit and 64-bit RHEL & CentOS systems running release 4 or 5.

First things first, all of my binaries are GPG signed. That means that you can be sure that these packages are coming from me, even if you should happen to find them on some other site (if you find a file with "jason" in the name and it isn't signed, DON'T install it).

In order to validate that the packages came from me, you'll want to install my public GPG key on your system. You can take care of that with a single command:

rpm --import http://yum.jasonlitka.com/RPM-GPG-KEY-jlitka

The preferred method of adding my repository to your RHEL or CentOS system is with the Yum package manager. CentOS 4, CentOS 5, and RHEL 5 install yum automatically. If you are using RHEL 4 then you can install yum or add the following to your '/etc/sysconfig/rhn/sources' file and install the sqlite package (i386 - x86_64) to use my repository with 'up2date'.

NOTE #1: If the above URL returns a 404 then try hard-coding $releasever to your EL version ('EL4' or 'EL5') and the $basearch to whatever is appropriate ('i386' or 'x86_64').

NOTE #2: If you are running RHEL 5, run "rpm --import http://mirror.centos.org/centos/RPM-GPG-KEY-CentOS-5".

NOTE #3: If you'd like to have early access (about a week before GA) to newer packages then add "-Testing" after "$releasever" in the URL above. These are packages I consider close enough to production-quality to test on my own live servers.

Once you've taken care of the above, you'll be able to easily upgrade to the same packages I build for my own sites with a simple 'up2date -u' or 'yum update'.

There is one caveat to the above statement... If your 64-bit system includes both 32-bit and 64-bit packages by the same name (such as "mysql.i386" and "mysql.x86_64" ) then you will experience a problem unless you remove the 32-bit packages from your system. Read this entry in the CentOS FAQ to learn how to remove the 32-bit packages all at once.

Oh, by the way, it should go without saying that if you are no longer using a pure RPM-based install of RHEL/CentOS (meaning that you have rebuilt httpd, php, mysql, or any system libraries from source, or are using CPanel, or a similar management app that compiles components from source) then, at best, you're not going to get very far, and at worst, you'll break your server. Sorry, but I can really only help if you're upgrading from a stock system.

Finally, at popular request I've enabled directory browsing on the repository (EL4 files, EL5 files, SRPMS). I would not, however, suggest that you simply download a single file to your server and install it. The packages that are in these folders are, in many cases, dependent on each other and will not work on a stock system.